On Free Trade Ideology
According to conventional โwisdomโ free trade leads to prosperity. Usually the idea is based on a version of David Ricardoโs (1817) theory of โcomparative advantageโ which is taught in most high-school economics classes. There is, however, a fundamental problem with that theory, as was shown by Frank Graham in 1923, and unfortunately that problem tends to be ignored. In the following, I will briefly summarize Ricardoโs theory and Grahamโs correction thereof, and discuss why the latter is ignored and the effects and implications of that neglect. A revised version of this article is part of chapter 15 of A Buddha...
Whatโs there to be proud of?
Pride plays an important role in most โ if not all โ ideologies on the right of the political spectrum. National pride and racial pride are the most obvious examples. The former is, of course, the core feature of nationalism or patriotism; the latter is the foundation of racism. The dominant kind of pride in contemporary right-wing thought seems to be civilizational pride, however. That is, one of the key aspects of the alt-right and right-wing populism as well as more mainstream contemporary conservatism is pride in Western civilization. This pride in Western civilization, letโs call it โWestern prideโ, is...